INFORMATION ON CURRENT AND UPCOMING PROJECTS

Information Source:  http://www.parsons.com/

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second largest in the country, covers 704 square miles and matriculates 750,000 students through 900 schools in 11 local districts. Many of its K-12 students must ride the bus for over an hour to attend school, and when they arrive they face deteriorated facilities and overcrowded, outdated classrooms. Astonishingly, the last new comprehensive high school in the District was built in 1973, and most of its schools are over 55 years old. Existing schools are bursting at the seams and in dire need of modernization and repair, and new facilities are desperately needed to accommodate an ever-growing student population. To address these problems, LAUSD embarked on the largest building program in its history. At nearly $16 billion, this program is positioned to be the largest public works project in the nation.

In 1997, an overwhelming 71 percent of voters passed Proposition BB, a school bond measure authorizing LAUSD to use $2.4 billion in bonds for new school construction and repair and modernization of the District’s 900 existing schools. These funds enabled the District to sign contracts with 12 construction management teams for 12,000 modernization projects ranging from roof replacements to safety and technology upgrades for the classrooms and 159 new construction projects. The new construction projects will alleviate much of the overcrowding the schools and the students face each day by enabling the District to accommodate 76,871 students on a two-semester basis.

In addition to the $2.4 billion the District received from Proposition BB, Measure K, a $3.35-billion bond passed in November 2002, will provide an additional 40 new schools. Add to that Measure R, a $3.8-billion bond just passed in March 2004. And thanks to State Propositions 47 (November 2002) and 55 (March 2004), matching funds will result in a total program of nearly $16 billion. LAUSD’s big problem will take big money to solve.